Custom and Myth was published by Longmans, Green in 1884, five years before the first Fairy Book, and it laid the theoretical groundwork for Lang’s entire career as a folklorist. The book collected a series of essays that had appeared in various periodicals, unified by a single argument: that the “irrational” elements in myths and folk customs — the transformation of humans into animals, the talking beasts, the cannibalistic parents, the magical objects — were not degraded astronomical allegories (as Max Müller’s solar mythology school argued) but survivals from an earlier stage of human thought.
Lang was applying E. B. Tylor’s theory of “survivals” to mythology: the idea that customs and beliefs from earlier stages of culture persist as fossils within more sophisticated systems. This was a revolutionary reframing that shifted the study of myth from philology to anthropology.
Collecting Custom and Myth
First edition (Longmans, Green, London, 1884): Cloth binding.
Market values:
- Fine condition: $200–$500
- Very good: $75–$200
- Good: $30–$75
Projected values (2026–2036): Moderate appreciation. Lang’s foundational scholarly work.
The Anthropological Argument
Custom and Myth (1884) was Lang’s opening salvo in the Victorian debate over the origins of folklore and mythology. Against Max Müller’s “solar mythology” school — which explained myths as allegories of natural phenomena, particularly the sun — Lang argued that the “irrational” elements in myth (talking animals, shape-shifting, cannibalism, incest) derived from genuine customs and beliefs of earlier stages of human culture. This anthropological approach, drawing on the work of E. B. Tylor, became the dominant method in folklore studies for half a century.
Frequently Asked Questions
Was Lang only a folklorist? Far from it. Lang was one of the most prolific writers of the Victorian era: a poet, novelist, historian, journalist, literary critic, biographer, and translator (he produced acclaimed translations of Homer). His scholarly work in anthropology and folklore was one strand of an extraordinarily diverse career.